ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 
I" 4 at d | 1 1 
71 
WX +h r4 4 E. Q +h ima 
these, having | j 
among seed-wheat from England, has now 
naturalized itself in this country, proving 
one of the most obstinate weeds the farmer 
or gardener has to contend with ; for though 
it be only of annual duration, it ripens its 
seeds so plentifully and so quickly, that 
wherever it has gained a footing it fixes it- 
self for ever. P. adpressum, the Mac- 
quarrie Harbour Vine, has become very 
common as a climber about Hobart-Town, 
and is also not unfrequent in other parts of 
the island, thriving best in rich moist soil, 
and growing readily from cuttings. Mr. 
Lempriere first brought it into notice a 
few years ago, its berries furnishing an 
agreeable acid. 
Richea | dracophylla) | Broad-leaved 
Grass-Tree.—A beautiful shrub, abundant 
on the upper part of Mount Wellington. 
Some specimens of it, or another species 
of the same genus, were some time ago 
brought to Van Diemen's Land from the 
Peak of Tenériffe, under the name of Cab- 
bage-Tree, and described as producing 
single heads, like an American Aloe, on a 
tall stem; a mode of growth which it as- 
sumes at Port Davy. On Mount Welling- 
ton it is much branched, and bears smaller 
heads at the termination of each shoot ; 
from the centre of these spring its beauti- 
ful spikes of white flowers, with shades of 
White, pink, and green upon the larger 
bracteas that, in their early stage, are in- 
terspersed among them. It is decidedly 
the most strikingly beautiful of all the Van 
Diemen's Land plants. 
Sida pulchella, Currijong, or Cordage 
uccu 
used to be employed for tying together 
posts and rail-fences, and the rafters of 
huts, during the earlier periods of the co- 
lony, before nails could be easily pro- 
cured. 
An m interesting account of the Botanist, 
- Magazine, tab, Pond T——— 
Tree :— X.humilis? Dwarf ditto :—and X. 
arborea, Large ditto.—The large species is 
a most remarkable, strong, grassy, or bent- 
leaved plant, flowering early in spring, and 
sending up a very long scape, or club-like 
head (often from two to four or five feet 
high), and exuding a resinous gum, said to 
possess, in a great degree, the virtue of the 
Dragon's Blood of the Pterocarpus, and 
Calamus. As it grows from year to year, 
this gum continues to exude, so as to be 
easily collected in large quantities in the 
sandy places where the plant is found ; as 
at Grass-Tree Hill and on Bruné and 
Flinders’ Islands. When Captain Smith, 
of the Caledonia, was at Western Port, in 
1825, he discovered it in profusion, and by 
boiling the gum with oil, made a very good 
and cheap composition for covering the 
bottom of his vessel, instead of pitch. 
The heart or pith of this tree is sometimes 
cut out and eaten by the Aborigines. .X. 
australis is probably the Grass-Tree of 
Prosser's River and Rocky Cape; X. hu- 
milis grows at York Town. The species 
common on the East coast, between Swan 
Port and St. Patrick's Head, will perhaps 
be found distinct from any of these. 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN 
BOTANY. 
By Dr. Wight & G. A. W. Arnott, Esq. 
( Continued from page 52.) 
SESUVIUM REPENS. 
Tas. XXIII. 
Caulibus prostratis ad nodos radicantibus 
apicibus subascendentibus, foliis ovali- 
bus carnosis spathulatis vel oblongo- 
linearibus, floribus pedicellatis, stigma- 
tibus 3. 
Sesuvium repens. Willd. Enum. p. 521. 
De Cand. Prodr. v. 3. p. 453, Spreng. — 
Syst. Veget. v. 2. p. 504. Wall. Cat. n. 
3936. Wight, Cat. n. 1179. Wight et 
Arn. Prodr. Ind. Or. v. 1. p. 361. 
Sesuvium Portulacastrum. Roxb. FT. Ind. 
v. 2. p. 509 
AL 
Rumph: Amb. v.6. t.12. —— 
